Cynthia Carroll has spent the past six years trying to rebuild Anglo American
into a global mining behemoth, but her departure could result in the company
being broken up.

Ms Carroll has been at the centre of a critical storm during her time as the world’s most senior woman in the mining industry. She has had to deal with a slump in commodity prices through the financial crisis, an unwelcome “merger of equals” approach from Mick Davis at Xstrata and another fall in commodity prices this year which has seen Anglo shares slump by 37pc since their peak.

The final straw came with yet another cost overrun at Anglo’s vital Minas-Rio iron ore growth project in Brazil. Costs guidance on the $5.8bn (£3.6bn) project had been raised four times already.

Her successor’s most pressing challenge will be to turn around AngloAmerican Platinum, commonly known as Amplats.

The Johannesburg-listed company is 77.3pc owned by Anglo and is currently unprofitable, despite supplying 40pc the world’s platinum. In the first half of this year it lost £33.3m.

“Platinum is the single biggest issue,” Des Kilalea, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, told Bloomberg today. “It’s got too many risks that global investors don’t like, including deep-level mining, very high labour component of costs and there’s strong and quite well organised unions, political and empowerment issues.”

Wildcat strikes, which first started at Lonmin, have crippled the South African mining industry. However, a solution now looks to be close at hand. Yesterday, a spokesman for the powerful National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said a deal had been struck for Amplats to reinstate 12,000 workers, as long as they returned to work by Tuesday.

A review of the Amplats business was ordered by Ms Carroll and this is close to completion. A sale of at least part of the company appears imminent. Other potential moves include a complete spin-off of Amplats, a separation of the South African operations from the rest of the group’s international operations, or selling down its stake in Minas-Rio.

Analysts have even suggested “unbundling” Amplats by handing the shares directly to Anglo’s shareholders, who could then decide whether to sell them.

Anglo has also been hit by a slump in diamond prices after it bought the Oppenheimer family’s stake in De Beers earlier this year, increasing its stake to 85pc from 45pc. De Beers could be spun off in a separate stock market listing.

Anglo chairman Sir John Parker has started the hunt for a new chief executive, with the process likely to take many months. Ms Carroll has agreed to stay on until the search is complete.

Potential candidates include Alex Vanselow, a former BHP chief financial officer and Chris Griffith, who was appointed chief executive of Amplats in July. Mr Davis, who will leave a merged Xstrata and Glencore if the deal goes ahead, has also had his name mentioned. However, Sir John appears to have dismissed him as a potential replacement in Friday’s conference call.

“I think it wouldn’t be unreasonable for me to say that we couldn’t afford Mick Davis,” Sir John said.

The role of Anglo chief executive is not known as “the most difficult job in mining” for nothing. Whoever replaces Ms Carroll will face a series of very tough choices.